Mr. Kevin Meaney:

There were two big changes we made, particularly for major projects. The first was removing what was decision gate 0 which was at the end of the strategic assessment. I provided an example to Deputy Conway-Walsh earlier. An indication of a rail project from the Department of Transport suggested that the time it took to take that decision at that point was five to six months. I think we provided a lower average of about three to four months of a saving just for that decision point which is no longer necessary. We anticipate somewhere between three to six months as a result of that.

Under the old public spending code, we used to require a second round of external review at the final business case, which is approval gate 3. That would have come to the major projects advisory group and we know that broad process is a three- to four-month process as well. With those two particular changes for major projects, we estimate there should be a six- to eight-month reduction in time.